10.28.2009

U.S. scientists say they have confirmed the production of the superheavy element 114, 10 years after a Russian group first claimed to have made it.The researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, led by University of California-Berkeley Professor Heino Nitsche and and Berekely Lab senior staff scientist Ken Gregorich, independently confirmed the production of the new element, which was first published by the Dubna Gas Filled Recoil Separator group.[...]

"This proves that the most interesting superheavy elements can in fact be made in the laboratory."

"People have been dreaming of superheavy elements since the 1960s, but it's unusual for important results like the Dubna group's claim to have produced 114 to go unconfirmed for so long. Scientists were beginning to wonder if superheavy elements were real."